A couple of weeks ago, I moderated a panel discussion on the Web regarding the Industrial Metaverse. This is an interesting topic for discussion. Questions remain:
How much of the term metaverse is simply marketing covering a vacuum?
What are the real use cases (something we care about in industrial applications)?
What are the components of a metaverse?
Or, perhaps as a recent Dilbert cartoon had it when Dilbert asked the pointy-haired boss what color he wanted his metaverse to be?
Wo this press release was interesting. Molex explores the metaverse. What would this company specializing in connectivity see here?
From the release:
- Manufacturers among first to benefit from convergence of physical and virtual processes to improve product-design cycles and factory of the future initiatives
- AR/VR, digital twins, robotics, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and predictive analytics poised to fuel adoption of industrial metaverse applications
- Immediate and long-lasting impact on next-gen IoT creates new engineering opportunities and challenges
Molex released a report examining the emerging world of the industrial metaverse and its impact on next-generation Internet of Things (IoT) infrastructures.
Molex and Arrow commissioned the development of this report to offer perspective on how the industrial metaverse will transform manufacturing through increased adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality (AR/VR), digital twins, Machine Learning (ML) and predictive analytics. These early enablers already are gaining traction in industrial settings to support manufacturing automation, process optimization, remote assistance, and training, as well as predictive maintenance.
According to the report, a robust industrial metaverse will deliver unprecedented value, starting with the design and ideation phase of product development all the way through manufacturing, sales, service and maintenance.
The report addresses five functional pillars, including speed and bandwidth, signal integrity, form factor, power consumption and electromagnetic interference (EMI). In addition, the report offers guidelines for how companies can get started, as well as advice on integrating core capabilities throughout their internal and external business processes while ensuring secure connectivity and seamless data analysis.
